Oklahoma CareerTech uses virtual format to introduce students to career possibilities
More than 16,000 students in 20 PK-12 and technology center districts across Oklahoma are learning more about nontraditional careers in a new Oklahoma CareerTech initiative.
The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education launched the VirtualJobShadow.com initiative as a way to encourage more students to investigate nontraditional careers. A nontraditional career is one in which less than 25 percent of the labor force is of one gender.
VirtualJobShadow.com is an online, video-based exploration and career planning platform designed to help students and job seekers learn more about themselves, career pathways and skills needed for independent living. It features videos showing a day in the life of men and women at employer worksites.
Read more on the Oklahoma CareerTech website.
Ag panel discussion video available
In case you missed it in December, you can watch the virtual panel discussion on the latest trends and employment opportunities in agriculture on YouTube. Oklahoma CareerTech hosted the discussion on Dec. 15.
The panel featured several agriculture experts, including Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur and Lopez Foods President John Patrick Lopez. Other panelists will be Scott Nemecek, ODCTE agricultural education program manager, and Cynda Clary, Oklahoma State University Ferguson College of Agriculture associate dean for academic programs.
OETA news show continues COVID-19 and education discussion
Oklahoma CareerTech State Director Marcie Mack joined OETA’s “Oklahoma News Report” to discuss issues facing state education leaders as the COVID-19 virus makes in-person learning problematic.
The discussion, which also included Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Chancellor Glen Johnson and Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, continues on ONR’s YouTube channel.
Gift will keep giving to Oklahoma’s health care system
As the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm Oklahoma’s already strapped health care system, one state agency received a gift that will help it train even more nursing students during this critical time.
Oklahoma CareerTech received 49 hospital beds from the Emergency Medical Services Authority. With an estimated value of $2,500 to $5,000 per bed, EMSA’s gift was a game changer for health careers education. EMSA and CareerTech have partnered for years on various training programs, and this year, that partnership paid off in a big way.
Read more about the donation on the Oklahoma CareerTech website.
Article highlights Francis Tuttle Tech program
An article in The Journal Record highlights a Francis Tuttle Technology Center program that aims to teach construction skills to young people on probation.
The Melrose Construction Trades Program gives students training in the construction industry to help them obtain jobs and financial success and stay out of prison.
“The whole point is to deter them from a life of crime so they have a life skill,” Melissa Hoppe, academic tutor, told The Journal Record.
Read more on The Journal Record’s website.
Caddo Kiowa Tech students help with vaccine clinics
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- Caddo Kiowa Technology Center practical nursing students assisted the Caddo County Health Department in administering COVID-19 vaccines to Caddo County first responders, police and firefighters.
Students were asked to volunteer on their winter break. They have helped vaccinate first responders, police, firefighters and people who are 65 years old and older.
In two weeks, the students helped vaccinate more than 3,000 people. The clinics gave them the opportunity to receive real world training during a pandemic.
Useful links
Follow us on Twitter at @okcareertech and find us on Facebook at OklahomaCareerTech and on Instagram at oklahomacareertech and read our blog, Oklahoma CareerTech Delivers. Find our podcast at https://www.cthorizon.org/.
For news about Oklahoma’s CareerTech System, subscribe to CareerTech communications.
Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are. -- Squire Bill Widener, as quoted in “Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography”
